The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools is sponsoring a webinar Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 2–3 p.m. EST, entitled "Language Issues When Working with Refugees and Immigrants in the Health/Mental Health Field.” The webinar will focus on how various systems (i.e., school, mental health, health systems) meet the challenge of addressing language needs of immigrant and refugee families through interpretation services.  

This webinar will help participants:

• gain a general understanding of the immigrant community’s needs;
• explore general values and viewpoints that impact immigrants' approach to health care;
• understand the art and science of interpreting in health settings; and
• acquire skills that will enable a provider to make proper judgments about the use of interpretation.

The strategies which will be presented during this webinar were identified through the RWJF national program Caring Across Communities, which is a series of innovative partnerships among schools, mental health service providers and community organizations in 15 communities around the country.

About the Presenter

Yeshashwork Kibour, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, providing individual therapy, psychological evaluations, court accompaniment and expert witness testimony for survivors of trauma including politically motivated torture, human trafficking and gender based violence. Kibour has worked with refugee and immigrant families for the past 10 years. She currently serves as associate director of clinical training at Argosy University, Washington D.C. Prior to joining Argosy she was a program evaluator, therapist and clinical director of the Program for Survivors of Torture and Severe Trauma, a program of the Center for Multicultural Human Services in Falls Church, Va. She also served as an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University’s Department of Psychology.

Kibour earned a master’s and Ph.D. in counseling and clinical psychology respectively, from Howard University. She received her postdoctoral training from the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, Minn.